Jay Leno's garage on metal 3D scanning and ABS printing

KEWL stuff.They mention the scanner as $3K. That's not where the cost is. I built a generation earlier unit for my CNC machine. its just a laser displacement sensor mounted in a tool. The laser measures distance to the nearest .0004 inch. So, you move the CNC machine along a line and record X,Y,Z data points. My little $200 unit (eBay special) could collect the same data as that 3D scanner in maybe 15 minutes.

The data set is called a point cloud. Dealing with this data is the issue. This data needs to be turned into a surface that can in turn be imported into a CAM program to write CNC code. The software to do this step is super expensive. My little project died on the vine at this point.

I've used the scanner for a low tech way to copy parts. Write the tool paths in Gcode for just the X Y coords. Run the laser to get Z depth. Then a text editor can quickly make a program. I've copied fairly simple parts this way.

Karl

I was wondering about this sort of for when I get my little CNC mill going and came across this

...

Here's an offer for the module only (1/2 of it) on the bay

Just watch ebay for laser displacement

Karl

Jay has some very cool stuff. I don't always think he's very funny (cetainly not compared to Carson), but he has excellent taste in toys. And he doesn't just look at them, he actually plays with them.

I recently saw a show about steam power (Science Channel, maybe?), and he showed off some of his collection, including the White steam car and a Stanley Steamer, as well as a couple of stationary steam engines. All fully restored (looking probably better than new), and all fully operational. He didn't just show them off, he fired up the boilers, drove the cars and ran the engines.

Very, very cool stuff.